Conventional metal wood golf club heads include a face and a body that extends rearward from the face. In some embodiments, the face may have a slightly rounded shape in order to provide a straighter and/or longer flight path for a golf ball, even when the ball is struck away from the center of the face. This rounded shape may be defined in terms of a bulge profile (curvature from a toe end to a heel end) and a roll profile (curvature from the crown edge to the sole edge).
Typical metal wood golf club heads may be formed by coining and/or machining a strike plate to have a pre-determined bulge and roll curvature, welding the strike plate within an opening provided within a forward frame, grinding away any weld bead that is outwardly exposed following the welding process, and then applying a uniform, brushed surface finish across the frame and strike plate. Such a process, however, can lead to rather large tolerances in the final product due to variability in the coining, welding, grinding, and finishing processes. As such, there is a need in the art to create a golf club with a face profile that can achieve much tighter bulge/roll tolerances to reduce the variability across multiple club heads of the same design. In addition, there is a need in low lofted club heads to reduce spin imparted on a golf ball to assist in increasing the carry distance and improving flight path of the golf ball.
Aspects of the invention will become apparent by consideration of the detailed description and accompanying drawings.